


The Falcon and the Knight

by GrangeLady



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A certain amount of beheading, Awesome, Because he can talk to birds and that's super-useful, Bucky is mysterious and everyone's tired, But also, F/M, Fake Marriage, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fantasy AU, Gen, Historical Inaccuracy, I might have to write that one day, I really identified Fury with Sam Vimes when I was writing this, I'll let you work it out for yourselves, It's almost a marriage of convenience, M/M, Marvel RarePair Exchange, Medieval AU, Multi, Natasha is a lady knight, Non-Graphic Violence, Sam can turn into an actual falcon, Sam is also the falconer, Sham marriage isn't exactly right, So maybe just suspend disbelief for a little while, There's a guy who can turn into a falcon, but they do love each other, is more accurate, magical au, sorry about that, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-02-12 06:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2098668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrangeLady/pseuds/GrangeLady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha and Sam must go on a quest to rescue their kidnapped lover, Steve. (It’s a fantasy foursome get-together AU!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Falcon and the Knight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AbschaumNo1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbschaumNo1/gifts).



> I wrote this for the Marvel Rarepair Exchange, for Abschaumno1. Hope you like it!

“A secret wedding?” Commander Fury’s voice was impassive. The falconer nodded, too solemn to be serious, and his apparent wife squeezed his hand. Fury turned his glare on his sometimes-favourite knight, who responded by leaning forward to rest her other forearm on the desk. (She hadn’t let go of Sam’s hand for the last hour, and had no intention of letting go until they could talk privately. There would need to be an explanation at some point.) 

“Last night. The priest was very cooperative.” Well, the records-keeper had been, especially after Natasha had wept to him about her condition, but by the time Fury was told about that it would hopefully be too late. “We were hoping that you might be as well.” 

“You’re asking to go with her?” Fury’s attention had returned to Sam. 

“I am, sir. In the light of our wedding, I think it’s only proper.” Natasha silently blessed him when he pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. She met his eyes and saw the laughter there, but responded with a love-struck smile for Fury’s benefit. 

The Commander eventually wrote them the order Natasha had been angling for, but not until he’d made it perfectly clear that he was congratulating them only on their stupidity. Natasha’s heart leapt when she saw the words “retrieval of Sir Steven Rogers, Captain of the Guard”, and the grateful tears in her eyes were far easier to produce than normal. 

-

Sam seldom had cause to think of himself as a patient man, but when he did it was usually because of Natasha or Steve. She was packing up the contents of her room efficiently as ever while Sam sat on her bed and waited to be told why they were ‘married’. The clearing of the room was much quicker than it would otherwise have been; most of Natasha’s personal effects were in Sam and Steve’s room by now. 

When everything useful was piled up against one wall, she sat next to him and pulled him in for a kiss. A long kiss. Sam wouldn’t usually complain, but after a few minutes he broke the kiss and asked, “Are you trying to distract me?”

“Trying to distract both of us. Don’t you want to make the most of our wedding night?” Natasha practically waggled her eyebrows, and Sam snorted as he pulled away a few inches. 

“Yeah, about that. When did we get married, again?” 

“Yesterday evening. Or the records will show we did, anyway.” She sighed, and Sam could feel it breezing over his neck. “Fury wasn’t going to let you leave the city, so I took action. I tried to find you, but you weren’t in your room or anywhere near the aviary, and Fitz doesn’t stay up late so I prioritised.” She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “I hope that’s okay?” 

Sam closed his eyes against the thought of what his mother would say, and let the absurdity of his situation wash over him. He hadn’t been outside the city walls in more than five years; ever since he’d been granted his ability by a mage of dubious intent, and placed on the brand new branch of the Guard, he’d needed permission from the Commander to leave. And the Commander wasn’t entirely convinced that Sam wouldn’t just fly away as soon as he was out of sight of his fellow guards. When Steve had been promoted following a much-too-successful strength spell and was given his own room, he’d invited Sam to stay with him immediately. (Sam made the full-time birds nervous when he changed shape and stayed in the aviary, but until then it was the only place he knew he’d be safe from midnight visits from the well-intentioned physician or the excitable castle’s mage. Banner and Simmons kept truly ungodly hours, and the Commander indulged them far too readily.) The rest, you might say, was history. Natasha had been intermittently involved with each of them up until just a few months ago when Sam had suggested they just go as a triad. And now it seemed he was married to her. “Yeah. Though it would have been nice if you’d asked properly.” 

Natasha’s smile promised all manner of wicked things. “I’ll see about that later, Falcon. We need to get going.”

She shouldered one of the satchels she’d filled with necessities and was through the door before Sam could say, “What about making the most of..?” 

They were at the city gates by sunrise. 

-

They were hopelessly lost by noon. Or rather, Steve was lost. Or rather, they had lost Steve. They knew exactly where they were (Sam had been flying ahead most of the morning), and the tower they’d been seeking was empty except for one enormous reptilian head in a puddle of semi-congealed purple blood. There was no sign of the body.

Natasha had tethered the three horses (one for Steve when they found him) to some shady trees and they were half-heartedly nibbling leaves on the lower branches. “You know this means..?”

“…into the vipers’ nest? Yeah.” Sam was hunkered down, like her, against the tower’s outer wall, keeping an eye on the horses and regrouping. This had been their only hope that they wouldn’t have to carry on beyond their own country – bandits had been known to keep prisoners to ransom here, and finding it the scene of some supernatural violence hadn’t been in the plan at all. There was no doubt now in Natasha’s mind that Steve had been taken by Idrayan soldiery, but to what purpose they had no way of knowing. 

“They’ve had him for three days now, Natasha.” Sam’s voice was far too sympathetic. She had no desire to see it echoed in his expression, so she strode over to the horses and called over her shoulder.

“Then we should get going. Are you riding?” 

-

Commander Fury was going to need a drink. “You know we only sent you out there for one magically-enhanced soldier, don’t you?” 

Natasha was still splashed with purple from the battle they’d won that morning. “We aim to go above and beyond expectations, sir.” Sam knew she must be aching with tiredness, but she stood at attention a respectful distance from their Commander’s desk. 

Sam wasn’t much better-off, given that he’d been mostly fighting on the wing, and when they had fled Idraya before their glorious victory could attract more soldiers, they had left his clothes behind. Rather than enter the city nude and walking, he’d flown back ahead of the other three. “And I think we’d call Bucky alchemically-enhanced, sir.” Fury’s unimpressed glare was almost a relief in its familiarity. It had been a very strange day. 

They were barely over the border before they came across the former owner of the severed head they’d found: an enormous serpent that split into half a dozen strands that led to half a dozen heads, two of which were engaged in fighting Steve. Sam had changed shape immediately, flying in to attack the creature’s eyes with his beak. It was effective, despite the taste, and bought them some time while Natasha tried to remember precisely where a snake’s heart is. The other four heads had been failing to subdue a man in a torn black cloak, who was rolling and dodging the creature into knots and only occasionally reaching into its space to claw at it with his glowing silver arm. 

They still didn’t know much more about him than the impression they had gained in that moment, other than that he went by Bucky and that Steve kept insisting (to Sam and Natasha) that he knew him. The pair of them were in the infirmary, being tutted at and marvelled over by turns in the way that Banner and Simmons tended towards, and all Sam wanted to do was…

“Go and get some rest, you two.” Fury’s face had softened into what was almost a smile. “I think your marriage bed must have gotten cold by now.” Definitely a smile. A smirk, even. 

That night, they promise they’ll wait and talk to Steve about their ‘marriage’ in the morning. They sleep in his bed, though, because it’s comfy and he never minds.


End file.
